Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

Border Town

In the decades that had passed, the temple would've already fallen into ruin if not for repairs by the government, and there were few people still making offerings.

Wenren È saw how familiarly Yin Hanjiang did everything and felt some suspicion. When Yin Hanjiang returned to his side after offering incense and washing the statue, he asked, "Do you often come?"

The base of Yin Hanjiang's ears reddened slightly, but his face didn't change. "If not in seclusion, I come once a year," he said.

Though this was the first time he had come with Wenren È.

"This Venerable doesn't cultivate merits or sustain himself on incense offerings. I'm right by your side, so why do you need to come bow to a statue of me?" Wenren È said, puzzled.

Yin Hanjiang had followed him from childhood, and Wenren È had assumed he understood him. It was only when he opened Abusive Romance that he discovered he was seeing only the side of Yin Hanjiang the man deigned to show. Since then he observed Yin Hanjiang more closely, and discovered many things he'd never noticed before.

For instance, this temple was over eighty years old, but the statue was still like new. This must've been at least partially Yin Hanjiang's doing. He would visit every year, yet Wenren È had never noticed.

Yin Hanjiang was about to answer when a man dressed like a government official approached them. He seemed around fifty or sixty, and came forward to strike up a conversation upon seeing Yin Hanjiang. "Is this young hero named Yin?"

Yin Hanjiang didn't treat this old official coldly as he did all others. He cupped his hands respectfully and replied, "I am."

The official seemed reminiscent as he looked at Yin Hanjiang's face. He sighed. "I came into management of the memorial shrines when I was sixteen. Now over forty years have passed, and fewer and fewer people come to pay respects every year. Only the Yin family, from your grandfather to you today, would visit every year before winter. Yet your father didn't show up for the past eleven years, so I thought your family had also forgotten."

"My father hasn't been able to walk these past few years and kept lamenting how he could not go. This year, I set out on a trip, and my father implored me that I absolutely must come here. He told me that my great grandfather had been saved by General Wenren eighty years ago, and the future generations of the Yin family should not forget this debt. When I grow old, my son and grandson should also come here."

Yin Hanjiang rarely spoke so much and was never good at expressing his thoughts. Wenren È saw how well he had played his own father, grandfather, and great-grandfather in front of this official, and would probably play his own son and grandson in the future, and an unfamiliar feeling rose within him.

Those eleven years were hardly because his father's legs didn't work, but that he had been caught up in the Great Sect War and unable to come.

"My father is the same," the old official said. He wiped the stone stele that stood in front of the entrance to the shrine with a damp cloth, so that each name stood out clearly. "He always told me that in that war eighty years ago, if it weren't for General Wenren, this town would've already fallen to the enemy."

As his cloth ran over the names, he stared at one that said Zhang Ergou and said with pride, "This one is my grandfather, who died in battle after my father was born. My father said that the peace this town enjoys now was won with the blood of my grandfather and countless other soldiers, and they deserve the highest honors."

A chilly wind blew past, and the old official wrapped his clothes more tightly around himself. He said with a chuckle to Yin Hanjiang, "You young people might not mind the cold, but if you don't put on more layers when winter is coming, you'll feel it when you're older."